BY DRAXON MALOYA

Several economic indicators are continuing to project a little difficult economic environment in the country, the revision of the policy rate also known as bank rate by the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) shows.

On Wednesday, RBM has revised upwards the policy rate by two percentage points,  a year after maintaining the rate at 12 percent.

The Cenral Governor, Wilson Banda who also chairs the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the bank, said in a statement issued notifying that the bank has raised the rate to 14 percent.

The hiking of the bank rate at which commercial banks borrow from the central bank as the lender of last resort comes at a time authorities are battling a high inflation rate of 14.1 percent as of March according to National Statistical Office.

Earlier, the Central Bank of Malawi (RBM) warned that the ongoing geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine continues to negatively affect price of goods ãnd services such as fertiliser, a situation that could affect the 2022/23 agriculture season.

Figures contained in the RBM March 2021 Market Intelligence Report show that Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser edged up by 25.6 percent to $938.1 (about K773 932.5 ) per metric tonne (MT) in March 2022, from $747.1 (about K616 357.5) per MT in the preceding month and $699.4 (about K552 255 ) per MT in January 2022.